It's time to set the record straight regarding Internet cafes in Florida.

Under Florida law, Internet cafes are not gambling and are legal. Internet cafes offer game promotions, which have been legal in Florida since 1971, as a marketing tool to promote the sale of retail products, such as telephone minutes and most recently, Internet time.

Our electronic game promotions are no different from peel-backs at your favorite fast-food restaurants or online surveys on receipts from large retailers and restaurants to electronically reveal a consumer has won a prize. In fact, more than 6,700 game promotions are filed with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services each year; many by Fortune 500 companies.

To state, as many media outlets have, that customers "gamble" during their visits to local Internet cafes is simply false. Further, to label these businesses as "strip mall casinos" is an unfair and inaccurate characterization of these businesses.

Many of our patrons cannot access the Internet from home and use our Internet cafes to browse the Internet, pay their bills online, prepare résumés and submit job applications, purchase telephone minutes and check their personal email. The sweepstakes simply is a marketing tool used to promote the Internet time and telephone time purchased at these cafes, the same type of sweepstakes offered at many checkout counters of large retailers who ask you to go online to complete a survey and the chance to win thousands in gift cards for that retailer.

Our coalition of Internet cafe owners, operators and software providers understand the need for state lawmakers, county officials and law enforcement to be able to better determine the law-abiding facilities from the questionable ones and also agree that additional, uniform regulation may be the answer. In the coming months we hope to work with all parties to recommend solutions and options, similar to the ordinance passed in Duval County in which the industry, law enforcement and local governments all worked together to find a solution.

Our coalition of business owners urges local officials to approach this issue with an understanding of current law and with the same respect they give all legal and regulated businesses in Florida. There is no reason to close a legal Florida business that spends millions of dollars in capital investments, pays substantial sales tax revenues, employs hundreds of Floridians statewide and reinvests back into their community.